Indigenous Languages

Māori has become a vital part of the New Zealander’s lifestyle. Originally it was the language of the indigenous natives of the islands. For a time, it was the official and commercial language of New Zealand, until it was replaced by the English from British colonizers. It was at the edge of extinction in the mid of 20th century; therefore, its native representatives and the government of New Zealand decided to encourage learning and teaching the language with the intention of preserving it. Today Māori is the second official language of New Zealand. Recently with the country tourist increase, its presence is more notorious in the modern English of New Zealand.
One of the aspects where the Te Reo Māori can be most noticeable in New Zealand is within its linguistic landscape: in the names of the streets and in the tourist signs of the country. The aim of this work is the analysis of the linguistic landscape of a New Zealand city to determine the use and position of this language within the New Zealand culture, if it is a decorative language for English or if it is a language with a linguistic identity that has an impact beyond the commercial realm.
The main objective of this work is to study the linguistic landscape of New Zealand with a corpus collected in the field and to analyse the presence of Māori in signs of the city of Rotorua. The works of John Macalister in both English-Māori relationship and New Zealand Linguistic Landscape are the main point of comparison for the study of my corpus.

1 Versión papel
ISBN: 9788471124418
1ª edición
Fecha de Edición: Enero 1, 1999
No. de páginas: 256
Dimensiones: 170 x 240 mm
2 Versión ebook
ISBN: 9788471125736
1ª edición
Fecha de Edición: Mayo 10, 2010
Formato: PDF

Luis Enrique LÓPEZ e Ingrid JUNG, lingüistas-educadores con vasta experiencia de trabajo y de vida entre pueblos indígenas americanos, reúnen en esta obra, actuando como compiladores, a lingüistas y antropólogos latinoamericanos, europeos y norteamericanos en torno a la relación entre oralidad y escritura en pueblos tradicionalmente ágrafos. Dichos pueblos se han apropiado de la palabra escrita como herramienta de normalización y potenciamiento de sus lenguas, las cuales se convirtieron en idiomas minorizados debido a su contacto y conflicto con el castellano LÓPEZ y JUNG sostienen que la escritura en lengua indígena constituye un importante cambio cultural al que la escuela bilingüe ha contribuido decididamente, y que, en las sociedades indoamericanas, la escritura no parece contraponerse a la oralidad tradicional, sino más bien se apoya en ella, en busca de complementariedad, pues ambas parecen cumplir funciones específicas y diferenciadas. En dicho contexto, la escritura cumple también funciones simbólicas que la han convertido en un nuevo medio de expresión y comunicación y que están relacionadas con el prestigio social actual de la palabra escrita y con la construcción de nuevas identidades colectivas indígenas, Compiladores y autores,basándose en esta constatación, proponen abandonar la dicotomía mecánica a la que nos habíamos acostumbrado al hablar de la relación entre lo oral y lo escrito, hecho que acerca también la realidad indígena actual al contexto postmoderno que viven las sociedades industrializadas, en las que la oralidad ha encontrado nuevos rumbos a través de las igualmente nuevas herramientas de intercambio y comunicación social disponibles. Esta nueva situación plantea serios retos a lingüistas descriptivos, sociolingüistas y educadores porque requiere nuevos modelos de descripción que den cuenta de la heterogeneidad real de las sociedades bilingües y plurilingües indígenas; así como propuestas de normalización más flexibles y sistemas de escritura que tomen en cuenta las características de los sujetos bi o plurilingües y la relación que éstos establecen entre las lenguas que hablan. Esto es igualmente necesario por la necesidad de imaginar y desarrollar propuestas educativas que den cuenta de tal diversidad para, desde ella, contribuir a mejorar la calidad de la educación en sociedades que desean seguir siendo plurales.
Colecciones
educación, culturas y lenguas en américa latina

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is a pedagogical approach that involves identifying real-world tasks that learners need to be able to do in the target language and then developing classroom-appropriate, context-specific versions of these tasks. In this paper, we use Long's methodological principles for TBLT to evaluate a task-based approach within two Indigenous language-teaching contexts: the Cinco Mercados Zapotec classroom in Oaxaca, Mexico, and a workshop for teachers of Salish Qlispe in the state of Montana. Throughout the article, we give special consideration to issues of investment in the target language, expanding on Norton's definition of language learner investment to argue that teacher and community investment in the language and language revitalization process are critical to the successful implementation of TBLT in Indigenous contexts. This advance online version may differ slightly from the final published version © The Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, doi:10.3138/cmlr.4051

The experiences of a community of people learning and teaching Lenape in Pennsylvania provide insights into the complexities of current ways of talking and acting about language reclamation. We illustrate how Native and non-Native participants in a university-based Indigenous language class constructed language, identity and place in nuanced ways that, although influenced by essentializing discourses of language endangerment, are largely pluralist and reflexive. Rather than counting and conserving fixed languages, the actors in this study focus on locally appropriate language education, undertaken with participatory classroom discourses and practices. We argue that locally responsible, participatory educational responses to language endangerment such as this, although still rare in formal higher education, offer a promising direction in which to invest resources.

Texte d'introduction au dossier « Traduction et autochtonie au Canada » publié dans la revue Trahir. La première série comprend des textes de Katie Moore, Anne-Marie Rivard, Kelly Oliel, Marie-France Baveye, Philippe Charland et Jean Morisset.

Lien web: https://trahir.wordpress.com/2016/09/21/traduction-autochtonie-canada/

Here we present research resulting from a tribal-academic collaboration between the Chickasaw Language
Revitalization Program (CLRP) and the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). This collaboration began three years
ago, with a UTA service-learning trip to Ada, Oklahoma. The Chickasaw Language Revitalization Program is
vigorously engaged in many activities to support language use by the remaining 70 or so fluent speakers. Communities
facing such stark endangerment must address revitalization and documentation simultaneously, and in a way that
maximizes resources. Our partnership offers ideas on how to approach this challenge.

We draw on the principles of Community-Based Language Research, defined in Czaykowska-Higgins (2009:
24) as a model that "not only allows for the production of knowledge on a language, but also assumes that that
knowledge can and should be constructed for, with, and by community members, and that it is therefore not merely (or
primarily) for or by linguists." Benefitting from an action-research model, our collaboration supports the Chickasaw
community by doing revitalization-driven documentation and training materials for learners that both feed into and are
drawn from documentation. Both sides of our collaboration are committed to the transfer of knowledge, especially
sharing our findings and knowledge with other endangered language communities.

Previous work on Inuit has analyzed the morpheme pi as a ‘dummy root’ or ‘empty stem’; a morphological or phonological filler which satisfies a language-specific requirement that words contain lexical roots. We argue instead that pi is a pro-form similar to English ‘do so’ and ‘one’. As evidence for this analysis we examine the use of pi to avoid repeating constituents, its ability to replace VP-sized constituents, the need for discourse markers in some constructions containing pi, similarities with ‘stem ellipsis’ in Arctic Quebec Inuktitut, and pi’s behaviour in noun-incorporation.

In previous studies carried out about the linguistic and cultural situation of indigenous
communities, we have identified the gap in traditional circuits of production and
reproduction of indigenous languages as one of the main reasons for the loss of their
vitality. Public authorities, indigenous organizations as well as intellectuals have
all stated the need for correcting this problem by means of initiatives such as the
Intercultural Bilingual Education Program (PEIB). In this article, we undertake a critical
assessment of this program, vis-à-vis Chile’s multilingual and multicultural character,
by analyzing several experiences carried out in rural and urban schools throughout the
country. As a result, we found that, at a structural level, there are not enough resources
to ensure the initiative’s continuity and that it depends on the individual performance
of teachers, principals and communities rather than the institutions that should
be responsible (National Corporation for Indigenous Development [CONADI],
Ministry of Education [MINEDUC]). At an intercultural level, the evidence points
out to conflicts among social representations with regard to the pedagogical content
about indigenous language and culture, and the role of «traditional educators» as a
way to transmit indigenous cultural knowledge. We conclude that public policies
such as the PEIB end up propagating the very asymmetric relationships and the social
representations they are supposed to overcome in relation to indigenous people, that
is, indigenous individuals subordinated to «civilized» people, without a voice or an
agenda of their own, living in precarious conditions, with a low social status and whose
local systems of production and transmission of knowledge lack of legitimacy.

This study examines the background and motivations of first through fourth semester university-level Native American language learners at the University of Oklahoma. A survey of ten questions collected data concerning demographic information, students’ home language background, students’ favored classroom activities, students’ motivations for taking the course, and students’ intended future study of the language. The survey was designed to discover who is enrolling in Cherokee, Cheyenne, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Kiowa classes at the University of Oklahoma, and why these individuals choose to study these languages. The analysis distinguishes heritage language learners from second language learners. The results of the study work toward an understanding of whether these students are motivated by integrative or instrumental factors and how understanding these students’ backgrounds and motivations can inform teaching methods.

Lexical markers basically constitute the Tense-Aspect of T'boli and Bahasa Indonesia/Malaysia. This is different in other Philippine-type languages which utilize a grammaticalized aspectual marking. This study provides a comparative analysis on the inventory of lexical markers of T'boli and BIM, which is analysed using the Contextual or Semantic TAM framework (Arka, 2013). Results show that since these markers are lexical in nature, it is imperative that both languages are analysed morphosemantically and not morphosyntactically. These lexical markers also appear to be highly optional and not overtly expressed in discourse all the time; hence they are highly contextual in nature. Following Grange (2006), this study also conducted an inventory of the combination of aspectual markers of both languages. Finally, the results of the study ultimately aim to provide further syntactic evidence for the genealogical relationship of these two languages and possibly determine which language first utilized such syntactic feature.

Four stars in the night sky have been formally recognised by their Australian Aboriginal names. The names include three from the Wardaman people of the Northern Territory and one from the Boorong people of western Victoria. The Wardaman star names are Larawag, Wurren and Ginan in the Western constellations Scorpius, Phoenix and Crux (the Southern Cross). The Boorong star name is Unurgunite in Canis Majoris (the Great Dog). They are among 86 new star names drawn from Chinese, Coptic, Hindu, Mayan, Polynesian, South African, and Aboriginal Australian cultures.

Firstly, the Roman Catholic «prehistory» of contact between the Panoan groups of Bolivian Amazonia and Jesuit, Franciscan and lay clergy missionaries is described. The paper then analyses the continuity of the evangelization process by diverse evangelical denominations, describing three missionary experiences with the Chacobo since 1955 to the present day. Finally, general insights are proposed relating the anthropological problem of religious conversion.

Brasil revela uma ainda muito pouco conhecida diversidade de línguas e falas, sobretudo se adentrarmos o universo das línguas e dizeres ameríndios, resistentes e sobreviventes. É uma diversidade silenciada, pelo Estado, missões, meios de comunicação, nas escolas, diante da soberania (nacional) de uma única língua. Diante da agonia e da morte, contudo, das brechas e fronteiras, emergem novas línguas e variedades, orais e escritas. Eis uma primeira questão a ser enfrentada: o que é língua? Não há uma resposta única e inequívoca. A maior parte deste texto trata da tradução de línguas indígenas como processo, desafio, impasse, (im)possibilidade. Propomos alguns exercícios e saídas, atravessando palavras, gramáticas e artes verbais de um pequeno conjunto de línguas: a expressão do que chamaríamos de tempo, e que tempo não é, lá onde não é esperado, em Kuikuro; o baile de traduções de palavras cruciais nas cosmologias ameríndias; a tradução de poéticas verbo-musicais, que operam transformações e conexões entre mundos humanos, não-humanos e supra-humanos (Kuikuro, Marubo, Parakanã, Tikmũ'ũn). A chegada de intelectuais indígenas à academia nos oferece, enfim, reflexões e provocações em torno da 'nossa' tradução de suas línguas. Em suma, traduzir línguas indígenas é um exercício em abismo de trocas de perspectivas e exige assumir o equívoco sempre latente.

This book is one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date works on language policy and education in Uganda. It helps us account for changes in language and education in Uganda. One captivating aspect that this book brings to the limelight is the linguistic transitions from one educational level to another and how we can account for such changes. Such a snowballing approach makes the book a useful tool for learning and instruction.

The book connects educational theories to language theories and makes the case for the necessity of such interconnection. It is a MUST read for students, teachers and researchers interested in interrogating the language of instruction conundrum in Uganda and other countries in the South.

Find it online at: https://africanlangservices.gumroad.com/

In Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language), Kipimoojikewin refers to our inheritance, or the things we carry with us. While Anishinaabemowin, Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) pedagogy and research practices are all part of our inheritance, so too is a legacy of colonial violence and historic trauma. This paper details one journey towards the language; the struggle through a colonial terrain rife with institutional and cognitive barriers, the journey to return to Anishinaabe ways of knowing, to articulating Anishinaabe pedagogy in a contemporary urban context and the work done to fulfill the vision of the Elders. There are no “best practices” only stories that exemplify an Anishinaabe axiological framework so that the causes and effects can be better understood, taken up and improved upon. Aapajitoon kema wanitoon.

Atong is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Northeast India and Bangladesh. In this dictionary, Seino van Breugel provides a rigorous, well-illustrated and well-referenced lexical description of the language, making this book of great interest and value to general linguists, typologists, as well as area specialists and cultural anthropologists. Comprising not only of an Atong-English, but also English-Atong dictionary, as well as semantic lexica, this volume is one of the most thorough lexical descriptions of a Bodo-Garo language to date. The grammatical lexica allow the reader quick access to lists of members of the various Atong word classes, collocations and idiomatic expressions. The grammatical compendium makes this book self-contained, while its many references link it to the rest of the author’s corpus on the Atong language. The Appendix of Photos not only provides visual illustrations to many of the Atong dictionary entries, but also offers the reader a glance at the physical environment in which the language is spoken.

The preparation for an adult Indigenous language learning journey is explored in this article by blending autoethnography with Indigenous research methods. Themes such as spiritual preparation, truth in telling one's family stories, the role of integrity, and the exposure experienced through autoethnography are discussed. The author concludes by acknowledging the emergence of new Indigenous research paradigms and their potential for knowledge creation.

"My Father Was Told to Talk to the Environment First Before Anything Else" Arctic Environmental Education in the Language of the Land, Chapter 16 (pp 285-298)
in
Fields of Green: Restorying Culture, Environment, and Education”
by Marcia McKenzie, Paul Hart, Heesoon Bai, and Bob Jickling (Eds.).
Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.

En las frases posesivas del wayuunaiki, el poseído antecede al poseedor y exhibe un prefijo que concuerda con éste: nü-tüna Luuka 'el brazo de Lucas'. En las frases preposicionales, la preposición antecede al complemento y exhibe un prefijo que concuerda con éste: nü-maa Luuka 'con Lucas’. Existe ASCENSO DEL POSEEDOR, donde éste asciende de constituyente frasal a constituyente clausal (con el poseído integrando un verbo complejo). Existen APLICATIVOS, donde el complemento de la preposición deviene objeto (con la preposición integrando un verbo complejo). Ambos fenómenos resultan de un mecanismo general de incorporación. En las lenguas analizadas en Baker (1988), las construcciones aplicativas ocurren cuando las FNs cumplen roles semánticos de dativo, beneficiario, instrumental o locativo. La incorporación preposicional guajira contrasta porque los objetos aplicados desempeñan cualquier rol semántico, produciéndose así aplicativos irrestrictos. Estos objetos aplicados son accesibles también a la pasivización, originándose abundancia de seudopasivas. El aplicativo explica también la facilidad de relativizar una FN en cualquier función gramatical (Keenan & Comrie, 1977). La incorporación promueve frases nominales de posiciones no relativizables a posiciones relativizables (sujeto/objeto).

This paper examines the history and background of Coastal Salish oral literature and the work of Native American storyteller Johnny Whis.Stem.Men.Knee Moses.  The paper discusses the state of preservation of the Salishan languages in the Puget Sound region, particularly Lushootseed and Samish.  The paper analyzes two of Moses' storytelling performances, one of which was given in Lushootseed and English, the other in Samish and English.  An attempt to describe and analyze Puget Salish poetics is made, along with a comparison to Albert Lord's analysis of Serbian epic poetry in The Singer of Tales.  The paper concludes that the effects of the genocide of Native Americans have resulted in a paucity of materials from which the researcher can draw conclusions concerning Coastal Salish poetics and oral literature.  This recognition of this paucity should act as an impetus for future researchers to document and archive Native American languages and oral literatures.

http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783662481585

This chapter looks into the interplay of indigenous education and global citizenship in the Philippines. The country is one of the first nations in Asia to have passed a law recognizing the specific needs of its indigenous people (IP). In 1997, the Indigenous People’s Rights Act was passed into law to ensure that IPs have
access to basic health and education. But much has remained wanting in its implementation even after two decades. This chapter spells out first the historical development and the emergent conceptualization of indigenous education insofar as
national policy is concerned. After which, local experiences of indigenous education are considered – particularly, the case of a local school in Bukidnon, the Apu Palamguwan Cultural Education Center; and an institutional program, the Philippine’s Response to Indigenous Peoples’ and Muslim Education. The chapter concludes by considering whether or not the concept of global citizenship is understood at the level of both policy and local experience.

[PT] Este trabalho apresenta, de forma resumida, uma revisão do panorama lingüístico no Brasil, numa abordagem que discute a situação das línguas minoritárias brasileiras. Especial atenção é dada ao seu desenvolvimento ao longo do tempo. Procura mostrar também o estado atual das línguas indígenas e das línguas dos imigrantes em território brasileiro. Por fim, é feita aqui uma reflexão sobre a diversidade lingüística no Brasil.

[EN] This paper constitutes a summarized presentation of an overview of the linguistic panorama in Brazil, based on a discussion of the situation of minority languages, special attention being dedicated to its development in the course of time. We also explain the present state of indigenous languages and of the language of immigrants in Brazil. Finally, we discuss linguistic diversity in present-day Brazil.

The new millennium began with a strong hope for success through collaboration in globalization. People were told
that globalization would bring a significant boost in transportation, communication, and information, which would
contribute to the foundation of the “global village”. Many predictions came true. One new trend was evident to
support all the new innovations—most leaders wanted to integrate English in their own educational system. Around
the world, schools promoted English in order to meet the competitive market that globalization had created. In fact,
some linguists predicted that English was going to take over other languages, and that it could actually take some
indigenous languages to their eternal rest. Today, there is a new trend that shows more and more countries
promoting mother tongue-based education (MTBE). Due to the fact that this is a fairly new paradigm shift, it is
catching a lot of government and educational leaders off-guard. Based on careful survey of a number of countries
promoting mother tongue education and recent research studies on MTBE, this presentation synthesizes common
factors that either promote or hinder MTBE. It concludes with recommendations of what must be in place for
success to happen when switching to MTBE, especially in the Asian context.

This article presents an overview of linguistic efforts aimed at
a description of the Poqomchi’ language (Mayan family, Guatemala).
This language remains one of the least documented languages in the
Mayan family despite the almost 500-year history of description, which
was initiated by Spanish missionaries in the second half of the 16th
century. The next attempt at descriptionwas associated with European
travellers and ethnographers in the second half of the 19th century,
followed by the efforts of American and European missionaries in the
20th century. Finally, native Guatemalan linguists who trained under
the American descriptive tradition continue to work on Poqomchi’ at
present. This paper seeks to describe the variety of approaches and to
analyse the possible causes of imperfections in the descriptions.

It has been predicted that, by the end of the XXI century, approximately half of 7000 World languages will be extinct (Austin and Sallabank 2014, 2). Some more pessimistic sources provide an extinction rate by the end of the century up to 90%. However, there are efforts being done to revitalize endangered indigenous languages globally and, although many programs are struggling in their efforts, there are successful examples of revitalization through these programs. The best studied examples include languages like Maori, Hawaiian, and Basque. The purpose of this project is to understand Kichwa language revitalization in comparative perspective with other language programs. Within this goal, this thesis addresses four main issues: The first will be to look at the growth and challenges faced by Kichwa revitalization movement. Then, the reasons and arguments that Kichwa revitalization activists provide for the undertaking of such task will be presented. This will be done with the purpose of drawing initial lessons from past and present failing projects attempting Kichwa revival. Lastly, the signs of hope for future and current revitalization projects from each interlocutor in my project will be presented and analyzed. With these goals in mind, I will present how Kichwa revitalization movements are operating in Ecuador and how these efforts influence the younger generation of speakers.

Se describen las principales construcciones posesivas en guajito/wayuunaiki: (a) diferencias morfológicas entre nombres absolutos (alienables) y nombres relativos (inalienables), los prefijos para indicar la persona y número del poseedor, los diversos sufijos posesivos usados con los nombres alienables, ausencia de tales sufijos en los nombres inalienables por la existencia de una forma indefinida; (b) verbos posesivos y privativos con los prefijos ka- y ma- (y alomorfos) y formas derivadas a su vez de estos temas; (c) construcciones posesivas con la preposición -ma'ana; (d) incorporación del nombre cabeza de frases posesivas al verbo para formar un verbo complejo (Baker, 1988), permitiendo al ascenso del poseedor de constituyente de frase a constituyente de cláusula, y consecuencia de este ascenso para la relativización.